The Scottish Government it is to offer the world's largest ever single prize for innovation in marine renewable energy.
The Saltire Prize is a £10 million award (US$20 million) designed to galvanise world scientists to push the frontiers of innovation in the crucial area of clean, green energy. Entrants for the prize will demonstrate their innovations in Scotland.
The announcement was made as part of Scotland Week at the world headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington by First Minister Alex Salmond.
Noting that Scotland is a world leader in alternative energy, Mr Salmond said that the Saltire Prize will put Scotland at the very heart of the battle against climate change and will promote collaboration and partnerships with scientists in Scotland and across the world.
In turn, it will deliver clear economic benefits at home as well as pushing forward the boundaries of research with a world-wide impact and benefit.
The first two members of the expert international prize committee - which will set the specific details of the challenge - will be Terry Garcia, the National Geographic Society's Head of Global Missions and Scotland's Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Anne Glover.
At his meeting today with John Fahey, the President of the National Geographic Society, and Terry Garcia, the First Minister welcomed their strategic support for the Saltire Prize.
Mr Salmond said:
"The Saltire Prize is the Scottish Government's way of playing its part in inspiring a revolution in clean, green energy as the world enters a new golden age in innovation prizes.
"Challenge prizes have led to amazing technological advances and contributed to hugely impressive returns on investment - from the Virgin Earth Challenge offering a $25 million prize for the first person or organization to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the Earth's atmosphere to the Ansari X Prize which saw the launch of private spacecraft and led to $200 million of investment from a $10 million prize fund.
"Scotland won the natural lottery with oil and gas in the 1970s and has won it again in its potential for planet-saving renewable energy. Our Saltire Prize is a call to action to scientists around the world to help bring the power of the seas around Scotland - and indeed the United States - on-line that much sooner.
"Scotland has long been a leader in scientific advances and is ranked second per head of population in the world behind only Switzerland and ahead of the USA in terms of impact of the research we produce.
"With the Saltire Prize, we hope to inspire scientists around the world to combat our most pressing challenge in finding a way to bring more forms of renewable energy online as quickly as possible. My Government looks forward to working with Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society, and other members of the expert committee we are putting in place, to set a challenge that will push the frontiers of renewable energy technology in Scotland and across the world.
"With demonstration of the ideas in Scotland, the Saltire Prize will deliver clear economic benefits at home as well as pushing forward the boundaries of research with a world-wide impact and benefit.
"This global initiative is hugely exciting. It puts Scotland at the very heart of the battle against climate change and builds on our nation's substantial reputation for innovation in the areas of science that matter. It reflects the core message of my visit to America this week - that Scotland is a place to watch, a nation with ambition, a country determined to maximise our economic performance."
National Geographic's Terry Garcia said:
"The world's oceans are an incredibly valuable global resource in a myriad of ways, and we applaud the Scottish Government's efforts to generate real energy solutions involving marine renewables.
"All of us at National Geographic look forward to working with the Scottish Government and the blue ribbon committee to develop the Saltire Prize."
Scotland's Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Anne Glover said:
"Scotland has a tremendous scientific heritage, from antibiotics to telecommunications, the impact of which have been felt right around the world.
"The Saltire Prize will be an inspirational challenge to the best in the world to apply their science and innovation to the generation of clean energy."
The Scottish Government has introduced a target to provide 50 per-cent of Scottish electricity demand from renewables by 2020. We have also introduced a new milestone of 31 per-cent to be achieved by 2011 - equivalent to around 5000 MegaWatts of installed capacity.
Scotland's renewable energy potential could see it provide 25 per-cent of Europe's wind power, 25 per-cent of its tidal power and 10 per-cent of the continent's wave power.
Terry Garcia and Anne Glover, Scotland's Chief Scientific Adviser, are the first two members of an expert committee to be approached by the Scottish Government to help shape the Saltire Prize. Other committee members will be announced in the next few weeks. In seeking to capitalise on Scotland's vast marine renewables potential, they will build an international prize committee to define full details of the challenge and announce it on St. Andrew's Day at Edinburgh Castle.
The first challenge will focus on addressing climate change. Once this prize has been won a second challenge will be set.